Why Coaching your Employees Makes a BIG DIFFERENCE
Cathie Leimbach • July 5, 2021
You may know that coaching your employees on an ongoing basis will increase their performance, reduce the line of people outside your office door, and reinforce training. Here is an interesting statistic – after employees receive training, they only implement about 10% of what is learned without ongoing follow-up and coaching.
Effective coaching of your employees will result in more confident, better trained, and more engaged employees. Coaching, rather than telling, creates future capacity in your employees. Here are some of the benefits:
- Employees are encouraged to succeed in their roles, surpass their goals, and sometimes are surprised at how much more effective they have become.
- It increases engagement – employees feel heard and that their contribution is valued.
- Your employees are coached to find solutions and answers themselves, leading to solid leadership skills and good behaviors.
- Employees become more motivated.
- Morale is increased throughout teams as each employee is equipped with more skills and confidence.
There are challenges for Managers wanting to coach rather than instruct. Ongoing coaching of your team will empower them to be more effective, creative, and confident. This helps your bottom line. Like all skills, developing coaching skills requires training and reinforcement from the organization. The reasons why it is challenging to implement coaching include:
- Managers lack knowledge about how to do it effectively.
- It feels time-consuming.
- Managers are often promoted based on technical skills, and coaching can feel awkward to them.
There is an accessible 12 step format to effective ongoing employee coaching:
- Give employees regular, frequent feedback. Employees crave constructive feedback from their managers. Look at our previous articles on providing positive and corrective feedback.
- Create a culture of feedback within your team. Encourage employees to provide feedback to each other and you.
- Push your employees by motivating them to get out of their comfort zone and perform to their potential. Their abilities and confidence will grow.
- Be open to employee ideas. We have previously talked about asking open-ended questions. When employees feel their opinion is respected and valued, they are more likely to be engaged and push harder.
- Encourage employees to learn from others. Connecting with their peers opens new possibilities and creates a more connected team. Encourage employees to learn from others.
- Ask employees for their opinions. This creates an open dialogue, encourages employee input, and provides an opportunity to coach.
- Build confidence. Confident employees achieve goals. Look for ways to coach each employee to set reasonable goals and recognize them for their strong performance and extra effort.
- Don’t do their work for them. If an assignment is going sideways, it is tempting to take it into your own hands and complete it. Instead, coach them on how to handle the situation by using open-ended questions to help them navigate through possible solutions to come to the best outcome.
- Tolerate and support failure. Do a second look. Make every failure a learning opportunity. Review what went wrong and talk through how to succeed in the next project.
- Recognize employees often. Don’t forget to celebrate success frequently. Little acknowledgments go a long way toward securing buy-in and building a stronger team. Praise much more often than you offer suggestions for improvement.
- Identify goals with the employees. Be clear about your expectations. See our recent goal-setting article for tips on how to do this.
- Ask what you can do to help. Let your team know they can come to you for help, AND use open-ended questions to help them arrive at their solutions after some brainstorming with you.
Coaching your employees is key to increasing output, engagement, and morale. Your job as a manager is to enable the success of each member. Next week we will provide some examples of effective coaching dialogue.
“The same production line’s data is late again,” someone said. “Are we just supposed to keep begging for it?” Maya looked up. Two employees had stopped their own work to help track down the data missing from the weekly report to headquarters. She knew there had been delays. She hadn’t paid attention to how often or what happened when the data came in late. Each Friday, John sent the report out, and Maya moved on. Her team hadn’t moved on. They were tired of disrupting their own work to address the same problem week after week. The Symptom Late work. Repeated mistakes. People asking why they should bother when others don’t do their part. When there is a pattern of leaders letting missed deadlines slide, employees notice. Silence can leave people thinking that missed commitments are acceptable, even when that isn’t what the leader intends. Monitoring performance gives leaders a clearer picture of what is happening—and something specific to discuss with those involved. The Tip Here are three steps to noticing problems and sharing your performance concerns. Track the data. Look at information tied to the work, such as deadlines and errors. Maya could track how often data for the weekly reports arrived late. Walk around. Spend time where the work happens. Notice what people are doing and how one person’s work affects another’s. Maya saw two employees put their work aside to finish someone else’s task. Share what you find. Bring the facts and your observations to the attention of the person involved. Maya could say: “Your weekly production data was submitted late three of the last four weeks. Today, I saw Lee and Sam stop their work to get the raw data and do the analysis.” That makes it clear to the employee that submitting data late is not acceptable. Conversation is Where Leadership Happens™ Is there a pattern at your workplace that you’ve noticed but haven’t addressed? Join our Workplace Conversations Clinic on November 16 to discuss addressing performance concerns. Bring a situation you’ve been letting slide. Reserve your place HERE
"When you get a chance." Kelly meant Wednesday. Alex heard next week. The report needed fixing. Alex had said he'd take care of it. So, when she opened the file before Thursday's meeting, she expected to see the changes. They weren't there. "I thought you meant next week," Alex said. "And I wasn't sure which sections you wanted changed." Kelly was frustrated. This wasn't the first time something had slipped. But as she replayed their conversation, she remembered what she'd actually said: "Can you tidy this up when you get a chance?" She had a deadline in mind. She knew exactly what needed changing. She hadn't told Alex either one. The Symptom Missed deadlines. Quiet resentment. The thought, "This isn't the first time." It's hard to hold someone accountable for an expectation that was never stated. Too often, when a leader’s expectation isn’t met, they think, "my team members just don't follow through" or "I shouldn't have to chase people." Yet, the problem is often that the leader didn’t communicate clearly. Requests like "Keep me updated," "Make this a priority", and "Be more proactive" may feel clear in your mind when you say it. But others may leave the conversation with a very different picture in their mind. Then, leaders are frustrated when the result doesn't match their intention. The Tip Healthy accountability starts with a shared understanding of what needs to happen. It continues when you follow up on what was agreed to. Before you finish your next conversation about a task, make sure you've settled four things: What needs doing What the desired result includes Who will do it When it is to be done by After you have clearly stated your expectations, ask the other person to state the specifics of the assignment. Give them an opportunity to raise questions or discuss competing demands. Kelly could have said: "Alex, please update the sales figures and add a short summary of what's changed since last month. I need it by Wednesday, October 28, at 3:00 pm so I can review it before Thursday's meeting. To be sure I explained the task well enough, please state what I asked you to do.” “What challenges might get in the way?" Then agree on what happens if a problem comes up: "If that timing looks too tight, let me know by Tuesday so we can work out the next step." Now there's a commitment you can both refer to. If Wednesday comes and the report isn't ready, Kelly can address it directly: "We agreed it would be ready by 3:00 today, and I haven't received it. What happened?" Clarity won't prevent every missed deadline. But it increases the chances that everyone is on the same page – and that your expectations will be met. When leaders make expectations clear and are open to employee questions and concerns, accountability becomes part of how the team works. Quality results become the norm. Conversation is Where Leadership Happens™ Do you wonder how to make your expectations clearer or how to avoid frustration when holding others accountable? Join Us on November 16 Join our Workplace Conversations Clinic on November 16 to practice setting clear expectations and following up when things slip. You could also have a chance to practice difficult conversations within your team. Reserve your place → HERE
